The opening of Mary isn’t necessarily ineffective in and of itself, but it still comes close to ruining the film. I don’t mean to start off on a tangent, as I’m pretty sure I’ve talked briefly about this in some other review. The film starts off with a petrified Sarah (Emily Mortimer) sitting in an interrogation room after something terrible went down. She was assured by the detective (Jennifer Esposito) that her children are fine, clearly still shaken by what happened. We cut to a team of Coast Guard officers inspecting the ominous ship named Mary, which ends in a jump scare before cutting to the beginning of our story.
Films opening in the aftermath of the story before flashing back is rarely necessary, and often undercuts any semblance of suspense and tension. I can perhaps understand the thinking behind it, utilizing the mystique of the ending to draw in viewers to keep watching, but it’s rarely ever done with the finesse necessary to not make the proceeding film tedious by no fault of its own. Whoever keeps suggesting filmmakers to open their movies like this needs a serious talking to because a seemingly tiny difference like that can work against what is probably a pretty good movie.
Such is more or less the case with Mary. One its own, it’s a pretty straightforward little horror film about a family taking a newly purchased boat out for a test run before the father, David (Gary Oldman), gets his new charter business going, and soon realizing through their journey that something spooky is afoot, and whatever sinister force is with them out at sea appears to be after their daughters, Lindsey (Stefanie Scott) and Mary (Chloe Perrin). It doesn’t take long for strange occurrences to begin taking place, but the story will occasionally cut to Sarah talking to the detective, which breaks the otherwise steady pacing.
The film is written by Anthony Jaswinski, who also wrote The Shallows – a film that I greatly enjoyed. Mary is not quite as economical in its storytelling as The Shallows, though it does clock in two minutes shorter, at a mere 84 minutes long. The details with the characters don’t seem to factor in a whole lot, at least, perhaps not as much as intended. There seems to be an attempt to have the struggles on the boat reflect the already shaky relationship dynamics, such as the sudden revelation that Sarah has cheated on David with his business partner Mike (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) in the past. Though, much of these details about the lives of the characters don’t really manifest themselves in the scares, and most of them are quickly forgotten about.
Mary is directed by Michael Goi, who is mostly known as a cinematographer who has worked extensively on TV, most notably his collaborations with Ryan Murphy. He does a really solid job here, serving as his own cinematographer. His style isn’t super flashy, but he does bring some strikingly creepy images, compelling camera work, all shot on rich 35mm film stock. It looks really good, considering he probably didn’t have a ton of money to work with. He does a fine enough job at creating tense sequences, even if I could have done without some of the jump scares. And he gets good stuff out of his cast, which shouldn’t be that surprising since he is working with the likes of Oldman and Mortimer, who could do these kinds of movies in their sleep (and to be honest, they both kinda have done so before). Those two are the ones who stand out the most, and that’s really because the rest of the cast gets very little to do, which was disappointing, especially with Garcia-Fulfo and Scott because I’ve seen the two of them do stellar work in the past.
I found Mary to be a bit of a frustrating watch. There are elements here that are really good, and there are moments that are tense and unnerving. One moment in particular that I liked is when David looks out into the waters, lit only by the moonlight and sees what looks like a silhouette standing perfectly still. Simple, but very well realized and super creepy. However, the way the film is structured with the interrogation bookending the film, and occasionally interrupting the story often drained the film of the suspense that it did building up so well. While the film still would be a pretty thin and predictable had that not been an issue, it at least would’ve had some energy and momentum going for it, as well as some genuinely compelling sequences of the family in peril out at sea. There’s plenty to like here, and while I wouldn’t say it’s not worth a watch, Mary is a middling horror film with a better – but not that much better – movie buried inside trying to get out.